We should have won this. But we didn’t.
Question: what’s up with the polls?
That said the polls, which have consistently shown Ossoff ahead, were narrowing. And the margin of error was nearly enough to allow for Handel’s margin of victory. But still.
It WAS a huge improvement over the Tom Price margin — huge. But still.
I would say this: complaints about how Bernie Would Have Won This Ruby Red District With A Lot Of Affluent White People From The Suburbs are delusional if well-intentioned. Believe me I wish a more progressive platform would win over working class whites but if well-educated whites from the suburbs can’t see the virtue in a more progressive platform, preferring the status quo or even a reactionary political party, which threatens women for starters, then I fail to see how a socialist platform would get more votes. Ossoff was, in fact, a very attractive, articulate candidate with a centrist message and he picked up a lot of independent voters and generated great Democratic enthusiasm but in the end the Solid South held the line which is deeply depressing.
There’s a lot of resentment in the South, apparently, about change, progress, Civil Rights and losing the Civil War — still. Indeed the more encouraging race was in South Carolina, which was surprisingly close. It’s clear that Trump is a drag on his party. And getting a narrower loss is, I guess, a good sign. Sort of.
What’s not so clear is the idea that Democrats have a prayer in Southern districts or for that matter rural mid-Western and Western states, like Montana, where the Republican candidate was outright violent and still won.
What will change white suburban Republican voters? I have no idea. Theoretically well-educated people should understand environment. They should understand global economics. They should be able to read. Being able to read they should realize that healthy, well-educated citizens make for a stronger, more prosperous nation. They should understand that higher wages and worker protections help us all prosper. They should realize that our staggering income and wealth gap is unstable, unsustainable. Better educated people should understand that women are not second class citizens, people of color and not second class citizens, and immigrants built and sustain America.
So?
Any ideas?